A federal appeals judge in Texas is accused of saying minorities are more apt than other groups to commit crime and that complaints of racial bias in death sentencing are a "red herring."

Civil rights organizations filed a complaint against 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones this week for remarks they say she made at a February speech to the Federalist Society at the University of Pennsylvania Law School about racial bias in death row sentencing.

The groups say the comments are prejudiced and call into question Jones' ability to be an impartial and fair judge.

Jones' law office in Houston said the judge declines to comment on the case.
According to several people present who signed affidavits for the complaint, Jones said:

“Sadly some groups seem to commit more heinous crimes than others.” When asked to explain her remarks, she stated that there was “no arguing” that “Blacks and Hispanics” outnumber “Anglos” on death row and “sadly” it was a “statistical fact” that people “from these racial groups get involved in more violent crime.” By way of example, she asserted as a “fact” that “a lot of Hispanic people [are] involved in drug trafficking,” which itself “involved a lot of violent crime.”

Jones, a Reagan appointee, also defended the use of the death penalty because “a killer is only likely to make peace with God and the victim’s family in that moment when the killer faces imminent execution, recognizing that he or she is about to face God’s judgment,” according to the complaint.

No transcript or recording exists of the speech, according to the Federalist Society.

The 5th Circuit's chief judge, Carl E. Stewart, will decide whether to dismiss or pursue the complaint, according to The New York Times.

The law school's Federalist Society says Jones' remarks are being misconstrued. "Rest assured the Federalist Society does not host or harbor racist speakers," Penn's Federalist Society posted in a brief statement on its Facebook page. "We're disappointed that constructive dialogue about federal habeas relief is being misrepresented like this." (Federal habeas relief refers to the appeals process for prisoners.) The group did not return a request for further comment.

The issue of racial bias in sentencing made headlines in Texas in 2000 when Texas' then-Attorney General John Cornyn identified five cases in which he thought the race of a defendant was used improperly in testimony. Jones joined her colleagues on the 5th Circuit in rejecting the stay execution request of one of these prisoners, Duane Buck, in 2011. Buck argued that his sentence should be thrown out since an expert witness psychologist, Walter Quijano, suggested during his trail that Buck's race could make him more likely to commit another crime in the future.

Jones, who was believed to be on President George H.W. Bush's short list for the Supreme Court, has been an outspoken critic of the Supreme Court and judges who do not adhere to a constructionist view of the law.

In 2001, she told University of Texas law students that people who suspect they are fired because of racial bias or their gender should "take a better second job instead of bringing suit" because they were almost always wrong about the cause of their firing.

Jones also criticized the Supreme Court for allowing pornography and for decriminalizing the use of profanity in public places in a 2005 interview with The American Enterprise.

So, yes, in this country "whites" make up a substantial majority of the population. It's an overwhelming majority in fact. You need for "whites" to be responsible for more than 65% of illicit drug use in the US for your opinion of higher usage rates dependent on ethnicity to be correct, and it needs to be a statistically substantial margin for it to even be considered.

Your other stated opinion that "whites" are responsible for more illicit drug use worldwide in general requires an even harsher standard because you are considering raw numbers instead. The only numbers I have stumbled across show "whites" as 15% of the global population. I doubt that your opinion is anywhere close to being correct, but please post data that justifies this opinion if you can find it.

You've introduced new source data to this debate without divulging the accessory data pertinent to this discussion, so I will not respond to that. If we are going to debate in the future, please keep this in mind.

I'm going to yield to your assertions here and ask -- do you think hispanics are responsible for illicit drug use in america? Do you think white americans are not part of illicit drug trade in america and abroad?

You've introduced new source data to this debate without divulging the accessory data pertinent to this discussion, so I will not respond to that. If we are going to debate in the future, please keep this in mind.

I'm going to yield to your assertions here and ask -- do you think hispanics are responsible for illicit drug use in america? Do you think white americans are not part of illicit drug trade in america and abroad?

If you are going to continue to ignore data that contradicts your opinion than there is nothing further to discuss with you regarding this issue.

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"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind I'd still be in prison."

He has a point, if you aren't going to provide a link the numbers are meaningless
as far as I'm concerned.

No he really doesn't have a point. He accepted the data when he misread it, and then tried to manipulate the data to make his opinion appear valid. When I pointed out what he had done he changed the subject.

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"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind I'd still be in prison."

Of course his real point is that whites WORLDWIDE are the largest consumer of drugs. Not by percentage but by raw numbers. That is simply idiotic given that the overwhelming majority of the world's population is not white.

Of course his real point is that whites WORLDWIDE are the largest consumer of drugs. Not by percentage but by raw numbers. That is simply idiotic given that the overwhelming majority of the world's population is not white.

The eyes can only see what the mind is willing to accept.

__________________

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind I'd still be in prison."

The trial judge allowed this testimony? You've got to be ****ing kidding me.

Quote:

Buck argued that his sentence should be thrown out since an expert witness psychologist, Walter Quijano, suggested during his trail that Buck's race could make him more likely to commit another crime in the future.

“You have determined that the sex factor, that a male is more violent than a female because that’s just the way it is, and that the race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons,” the prosecutor asked Dr. Quijano. “Is that correct?”